


Borrowers Can’t Be Scared of Heights

by KieraElieson



Category: Original Work, The Borrowers - All Media Types
Genre: Borrowers - Freeform, Fear in General, G/T, Gen, People being treated like less than people, Starving, Things will get better, scared of heights
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-24 23:42:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22006399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KieraElieson/pseuds/KieraElieson
Summary: Borrowers can’t be scared of heights. Everyone knows that. They’d die in days, or less. Or else be a tremendous burden on their family.And yet, despite everything she’d tried, everything she’d done, her fear only seemed to grow.That was why, when the human got suspicious, and even started leaving notes, and her family decided to move, they also decided to leave her behind.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Original Work! I’m trying this out, so I hope someone likes it. :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s an edit, I’m changing their names to Holli and Aisha.

Borrowers can’t be scared of heights. Everyone knows that. They’d die in days, or less. Or else be a tremendous burden on their family. 

And yet, despite everything she’d tried, everything she’d  _ done _ , her fear only seemed to grow. 

That was why, when the human got suspicious, and even started leaving notes, and her family decided to move, they also decided to leave her behind. 

Holli hugged her aching stomach. She hadn’t eaten in nearly three days, and she knew she  _ had  _ to do something now. Maybe… maybe the human had given up looking. 

She set out, only to reach the first hurdle. The ladder. Their home—her home now, was halfway to the basement, and there was a massive ladder to climb up to the first floor. She knew she was capable of climbing it, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying. 

  * •^*^••



Aisha gave up. She picked up all the little sticky notes and threw them away. Not one had been budged or had an answer written on them, and not one crumb of the food she’d put out had any signs other than mice signs, which were now all over her house. 

It had been a foolish hope, anyway. 

And now she had to deal with mice. 

She cleaned her house top to bottom and sealed everything in the pantry into thick plastic or glass containers. She put out several of the little cage traps, and called animal control to confirm that she could drop off any mice she caught. She didn’t intend on killing any of them, certainly. 

  * •^*^••



Holli made it. Finally. Her body was shaking from more than just hunger, but she was there now. It was mid morning, and the human shouldn’t be home. 

She made her way to the kitchen, and got into the pantry. Usually, there were crumbs or dropped bits of food all over the ground, but now there weren’t. It was swept perfectly clean. 

She climbed up to the first shelf, but none of the containers were the kind she could open. 

She left the pantry, and looked up to the kitchen counters. They were high, and she’d have to climb just her rope the whole way. But her stomach growled, reminding her of the reason she was doing this at all. 

She swung the hook up, grateful that it stuck on the first try. Ugh. This was going to be miserable. 

Eventually she made it. But there was nothing, not even dirty dishes, that she could possibly eat. And then she saw it.

It was a cage, and inside was a piece of cheese and a large dollop of peanut butter. Her mouth dropped open and started drooling without any conscious input. Her stomach growled again, much louder than before. 

At this point, she almost didn’t care. Compared to slowly starving, a death by human after such a last meal seemed almost better. 

She went to the sink and took a long drink of water, filling her bottle, and hoping that it would be enough to stop her stomach from taking over her mind. She carefully climbed down from the counter, which was worse than climbing up, honestly, and searched the rest of the house. She finished in the bedroom, where still, there was not one crumb left anywhere. 

In the corner of the bedroom, under the dresser, there was yet another of the traps. 

It was too much. 

She climbed in, wincing as it shut behind her. But at least now she could fill her stomach. 

  * •^*^••



Aisha got home, exhausted. Work had been long. 

She kicked her shoes off by the door and went around, checking the traps. The one on the top shelf of the pantry had caught a mouse. She pulled it down and set it near the door. It would probably be fine until morning, and she’d take it to animal control on her way to work. 

She went to her bedroom, only just remembering once she opened the door that she had set a trap in here too. She knelt to look under the dresser, and was immediately taken aback. 

There was a tiny person in the trap. She was laying on her side, seemingly asleep. 

Aisha pulled the trap out, and instantly the tiny girl woke up. She scrambled back, away from Aisha, trembling and filled with fear. 

Aisha picked up the cage to her face level. “Hey there-“ 

She was cut off by an ear piercing shriek. The tiny girl clung to the bars of the cage as if her life depended on it. She was shaking violently now. 

“Are you ok? Did I hurt you?” Aisha asked quickly. 

“P-put me DOWN!” The girl screamed. 

Aisha set the cage on the ground, and the girl collapsed. 

“Are you alright? Where did you get hurt?” 

Aisha pried open the cage, and scooped the tiny girl into her hand. She was trembling all over, and was just so  _ small!  _ Tears were running down her face, and when Aisha moved her hand, she turned and clung to a finger. 

“D-don’t pick me up. Please!” 

“It’s ok, I’m not going to hurt you.” Aisha carefully moved her hand in a slow arc to her lap. 

“No, no no no, please!” The girl’s grip was so tight it pinched. “Put me down! Please!” 

Aisha didn’t understand, but she moved her hand back down to the floor. The girl tried to scramble off, but Aisha brought her other hand over to cup around the tiny body. 

“I didn’t think you were real…” she breathed. 

She leaned down, and shifted to laying on her stomach to see the girl closer without picking her up again. 

“So where are you hurt?” She asked, turning the girl gently back and forth. 

“I-I’m not.”

“Then why’d you scream?” Aisha frowned slightly, and the girl shrank back. 

“I’m s-scared of— of heights.”

“Oh.  _ Oh. _ I’m so sorry.”

The girl, not meeting her eyes, shrugged. “It’s— it’s alright I guess.”

“So why are you here? The trap wasn’t hidden or anything.” Before the girl responded, understanding hit Aisha. “Oh, it’s because of me, isn’t it? Because I put all the food away.” 

The girl nodded. 

Aisha looked at her more critically. She was almost painfully skinny, and very pale. Her hair was short, barely brushing her shoulders, but still thin and sparse, as if she’d been malnourished for a long time. 

“Are you still hungry? I can get you more food.” 

“C-can— I want to go home. Please let me go.” The girl said, trying to pry apart two of Aisha’s fingers. 

“Not yet,” Aisha said, throwing that idea out the window before it could get anywhere. “First we’re going to see about dinner.” 

She shifted to sit up again. 

The girl dropped to her knees, grabbing tightly to a finger again. “No, no, please! I’ll stay, I swear! I won’t move at all! Please don’t pick me up!”

Aisha considered a minute, and then set the girl back in the cage. 

“I’ll be back in just a minute.” 

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

  * •^*^••



**Two**

  * •^*^••



The cage was still open. Holli could walk right out. But… what good would that do her? She’d be free, yes, free to starve. And if she came back after leaving, who knows how the human might react then. Would she be angry? One the other hand, if she stayed, she’d certainly get dinner, and it seemed that the human was willing to let her stay on the ground. 

If she chose to be a human’s pet, would that really be so bad? This human seemed like she would definitely feed her, and might be considerate of her fear of heights. On the other hand, she’d never been a good borrower. Even if all the food wasn’t locked away, she’d never be able to get enough to keep herself fed. One the other hand, she did  _ not _ like the idea of getting picked up, much less picked up and lifted. And if she let herself become a human pet, the human would probably want to pick her up. And it was a  _ human!  _ Humans were always bad! They hurt borrowers, and killed them by accident, or sometimes on purpose. How could she just… let that happen? One the other hand, it was just her now. She could make her own decisions, and other borrowers lives wouldn’t depend on them. She didn’t even know where her family had gone, so she couldn’t betray them if she wanted to. 

And now the human was back, looming over her and making all rational thought impossible once again. 

  * •^*^••



She’d left the cage open, but the little borrower girl was still sitting in it. Did she say she wanted to go home? Unless she’d thought that she had to stay, since she promised not to move if Aisha didn’t pick her up. Or maybe she was just really that hungry? 

Whatever it was, Aisha was glad to still have her company. 

“I heated up some leftovers. There’s chicken, and some vegetables. If you don’t like those, I can get something else…”

The girl stepped to the edge of the cage, and peeped her head out from behind the bars, as if they were a solid wall. “I-it’s fine.” 

Aisha sat down on the ground, and set down the saucer. She held the plate in her lap and cut a little piece of the chicken off, cutting into as tiny pieces as she could, and scraping it onto the saucer. She did the same with a floret of broccoli and a slice of carrot. 

Then she sat back to eat her own food. 

The girl came over to the saucer, and pulled some kind of utensil out of her bag, brushing it off and then eating the food with it. She ate quickly, much more quickly than Aisha did, and scooted away after she’d eaten about half the food. 

“So what’s your name?” Aisha asked. 

“What’s  _ your  _ name?” The tiny responded. 

“Aisha.”

The girl looked like she deflated slightly. “Oh. My name’s Holli.” 

Holli was cute. She was little, obviously, but even though she looked so malnourished, her little green eyes shone brightly. The rest of her was a pale yellow, from the color of her hair to the color of her dress, though there were some green pants that showed past the hem of the dress. It wasn’t… the color combination that Aisha would have chosen… or really that anyone she knew would have chosen. 

Holli seemed to be getting more and more nervous from being stared at. “W-what are you going to do with me?”

“Do?” Aisha had to think about it for a minute. “Well, I’d like to feed you for a while, probably see if I can get you any better clothes.”

“Are you— are you going to keep me here?”

And now Aisha had to think again. At first, yes, she’d fully intended to keep Holli here. But, if she was terrified of heights, to the point where Aisha’s lap while she was sitting in the floor was too much? Aisha wasn’t going to live on the floor for the rest of her life, and she couldn’t see keeping the girl in mortal terror just to keep her. 

“I won’t keep you here if you promise to come back in the morning.”

  * •^*^••



This was… a way better deal that Holli had  _ ever  _ expected to get. She’d eaten, twice now, and she was being told to come back in the morning, and that Aisha wanted to feed her  _ more! _ And get her new clothes! She hadn’t had new clothes… ever. These were hand-me-downs. And she got to go home in between??? 

“I promise.” She said, trying not to look  _ too  _ eager. 

Aisha smiled, and, wow she was pretty. Her skin was very dark, almost as dark as her fitted black suit, and her hair made a halo around her head. Her teeth and the whites of her eyes were vividly white in comparison, and her smile was gorgeous. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s been over a year now since I last did anything with this XD
> 
> Hi!

Aisha was almost surprised when she saw Holli the next morning. For all that she’d tried to hide from her before, now that she’d been found, she didn’t seem hardly shy at all anymore. 

Aisha didn’t really want to eat breakfast on the floor, though. 

“How do you feel about surfaces?” She asked. 

“What do you mean?”

“If you get up on the counter, will you still be scared of the height?” 

Holli hesitated. “If—If I can’t see down to the floor, and if it doesn’t move, then it’s bearable.”

“Well let’s try to get you up here then to eat with me.”

Holli took several steps back. “I-if you’re picking me up, you have to be careful.”

“Ok. How would you like me to do it?” 

Holli’s eyes went wide. She held out her hands, cupped one over the other. “If you do it like this, and I can’t see, maybe I can do it. But— if I get scared then stop. Please.”

“I promise.” 

Aisha set a hand on the floor and Holli climbed on. She cupped her other hand over it. 

“You have to do it tighter!” Holli said, yelling to be heard. 

Aisha didn’t know why, but she still cupped her hands closed, leaving less room for Holli in the pocket they made. 

“Tighter!” 

“I don’t want to squish you!”

“I’d rather be squished than dropped.”

So Aisha closed her hands together, sandwiching Holli between them, and covering her completely. She picked them up just a little off the floor, and felt Holli’s whole body tense and tremble, but she didn’t say anything. So she lifted higher, and set her hands on the counter before opening them and letting Holli out. 

Holli was trembly, and breathing hard, but she gave Aisha a thumbs up. 

  * •^*^••



Holli was proud of herself. She was doing very well at this whole being a human pet thing. She’d managed to make it up the ladder in time for breakfast, and she’d negotiated a holding, and even, even managed to get the human to pick her up in a way that was much less terrifying. 

Aisha was portioning off some eggs for her, and they were still hot, steam curling up from the plate. Holli couldn’t wait! She’d never had eggs while they were still hot. Once she’d had them reheated, but that just wasn’t the same. 

“They’re amazing!” She gushed, trying to make an effort to eat more slowly, like Aisha was. 

Suddenly she froze, and her eyes went wide as a finger started coming at her. It landed on her head, and ruffled her hair, sending a shudder through her whole body. The shudder passed through, leaving a strange warmth behind it. 

Aisha jerked her hand back. “Sorry, I should’ve asked.”

“Can—can you do it again?” Holli asked tentatively. 

“What?” 

“Please?”

And then the finger was back. Rubbing her head, and down to her back, and up again. Holli leaned into it. It was just… really comfy somehow, even coming from a human. 

She felt dumb. Or wrong. Broken somehow. 

This was  _ not  _ how it was supposed to go. Borrowers were supposed to be scared of humans, and not scared of heights, and they were supposed to run away, not  _ ask  _ to be pet! 

The finger stayed, gently rubbing her head and down her back, and Holli found herself melting under the touch. She shouldn’t. She really, really shouldn’t. She shouldn’t have come back. She shouldn’t be talking to the human, to Aisha. 

But she was proud of herself. And ashamed at the same time. 

One the one hand, she had somewhere to stay, food to eat, and someone that not only would talk to her but would pet her gently. 

On the other hand, this was  _ incredibly  _ dangerous and stupid. And she wasn’t supposed to  _ like  _ being petted by a human. She certainly wasn’t supposed to want to be petted more. And very possibly she was just being kept like this as a pet. Which wasn’t good either. 

But… it was just so very good. For now. 

And the anxious part of her mind seemed at least partially sated as long as she added that ‘for now’ and was careful. 

“Thank you,” she murmured, her eyes slipping closed. 

If she’d opened her eyes and looked up, she could’ve seen an awed sparkle in Aisha’s dark eyes. But she didn’t see it, only heard the soft “Oh, of course.”

When Aisha took her finger away a bit later, Holli felt a pleasant shiver run all over her skin. She stretched, trying to look casual, and less like she had been contemplating sleep. 

  * •^*^••



“I wouldn’t have guessed you’d like being petted…” Aisha mused aloud. She’d heard of borrowers before, but only as a myth, a children’s story, and never had heard of them enjoying being petted in any way. 

Holli blushed, suddenly curling in on herself a bit. 

Aisha rather suddenly was hit with a fuller awareness of the fact that Holli was a girl. A person. Even though tiny, she was still very similar, or possibly the exact same, as a human. And that was a rather rude thing to say to someone. 

And then several of her decisions and words over the past day flitted into Aisha’s mind. She’d just taken charge, picking up and moving and telling Holli what to do. It wasn’t right of her to do that, though still a strong protective and caring streak was etching its way deeper and deeper into her mind the more she thought about Holli. 

And by the time the words were coming out of her mouth her mind had compromised. She wouldn’t be so demanding of Holli. She’d ask what she wanted and go with that, treating her as an equal from now on. But, she wouldn’t exactly… apologize, or explain the fact that she wouldn’t really try to keep Holli here. 

Because the truth was that she really,  _ really  _ didn’t want Holli to leave. She’d bribe her with food, with clothes, with more petting if that’s what she wanted, rather than through any kind of force. But she worried that if she made it clear that Holli was free to go if she wished, that she might well leave. 

So instead of apologizing for scaring her the night before, or for trying to pressure her into staying, she said “It’s a little chilly in here for that dress. If you want, I can look up doll clothes, and get you a warmer one. And if it doesn’t fit, I’m sure we can fix it.”

Holli looked up at her with wide eyes and nodded. “Thank you. That sounds really nice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Carolofthebell for helping me come up with better, permanent names for Holli and Aisha!


End file.
